Active forum topics

Ray Noorda, Father Of Network Computers, Dies

Ray Noorda, the Novell Inc. founder who battled Microsoft Corp. in the early years of network computers, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 82.

Noorda, the so-called Father of Network Computing, had suffered from Alzheimer's for years and died at his modest home in Orem, 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, according to a statement from family members.

Noorda became chief executive of Novell in 1983 and made it a software powerhouse, dominating the market for products that manage corporate networks and let individual computers share files and printers.

``Ray was one of the innovators of the Utah Miracle,'' Gov. Jon Huntsman said. ``He launched what would become Utah's technology sector. He has left behind a monumental legacy and we are all in his debt.''

Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., and Kevin Rollins, Dell's president and chief executive, issued a joint statement praising Noorda as a pioneer of the computer age. They said his file-sharing program has become the de facto standard for the world's computers.

He wasn't a developer. He was just a tough businessman with the nerve to take on Microsoft, which he saw as a threat to dominate the desktop long before everyone else did.

Linux and open-source owes Noorda another, more direct, debt.

When Novell bought Unix and USL (Unix Systems Laboratories) from AT&T, rather than continue to fight with BSDI (Berkeley Software Design Inc.) over possible Unix intellectual property rights violations in BSD/OS (an early, commercial BSD Unix), Noorda famously declared that he'd rather compete in the marketplace than in court, and the two sides came to an amiable agreement.

Without the threat of a lawsuit hanging over the BSD Unixes, and later Linux, open-source developers were free to create the operating systems we use today.

The Ubuntu MATE project does something very admirable each month. Its makers contribute financially to other open source projects that are being used in the operating system, and that is something that doesn't happen all the often in the FOSS universe.

Wine 1.7 Series Turn Two Years Old, No Sign Of Wine 1.8

Today marks two years since the start of the Wine 1.7 development series. While it's been two years of doing bi-weekly development releases, there's no sign of Wine 1.8.0 being ready for release in the near future.

Latest News

Zbigniew Konojacki, the creator of the independent 4MLinux GNU/Linux distribution, announced recently that version 13.1-0.98.7 of his Antivirus Live CD project is now available for download, based on the 4MLinux 13.1 series.

Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu Desktop to Have Similar Boot Animations Soon

Ubuntu Touch is always receiving updates, and all sort of improvements and regular users get to experience those changes when new OTA update is made available. From the looks of it, one the changes that will come shortly is a new boot screen.

Korora 22 (Selina) available

It has been a long road to the Korora 22 (codename "Selina") release and we're sorry that it has taken so long. However, it is now finally available for download (we strongly recommend using BitTorrent).